The holidays are now over and the New Year has begun. I hope you had a Merry Christmas filled with fun and family. It’s time to turn our attention to our winter activities and the 2012 shows.  I’m sure many of you are working on restoration projects and I hope they are going well. My attention is focused on the final preparations for the National Winter Convention in Coralville on March 1-3, 2012. The committee members are very busy completing the details to assure that all attendees have a great time. If you haven’t registered or planned to attend, please do so as it’s a great opportunity to participate in a Winter Convention without traveling to other states.

Our Winter Banquet Meeting will be in Toledo, IA, Jan.21 and you’ll find details in this newsletter. Last year’s banquet was sold out, so please make sure you RSVP as soon as possible to reserve your meal. And bring your ballots for the Board of Director’s election. We have a great group of candidates and your vote is important.

Our Spring meeting will be hosted by Bob Caloud and Dick Forster at Clutier, IA on April 14. We hope to see you all there. The next club activity after that will be our display at the 2012 Farm Progress Show at Boone, IA. Contact Ray Cook if you would like to provide a unit to display. Following that will be our summer show at Forest City, IA on Sep. 14-16 and we hope to overwhelm our host with IH displays. Mix into that the Red Power Round-Up at Du Quoin, IL on July 19-21 and you find plenty of opportunities for IH fun.

See you soon.

Joe Neville

Chapter 5 President

The bios for the candidates who will be running for election onto the Board of Directors are in the January Newsletter along with the ballot.  As in years past, the ballot will only be available in the newsletter.  There will not be additional ballots at the January meeting in Toledo.